Advisor: Brian Metscher

PhD Defensio - Monday, March 23rd 2026, 18:00
Lecture Hall 1, UBB, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030 Vienna 

Abstract

This dissertation advances a new theoretical framework for explaining vertebrate heartevolution, grounded in philosophical considerations and evolutionary developmental biology(evo-devo). Integrating Woodward’s (2003) interventionist account of causation with anexpanded mechanistic perspective, the work develops the Environmentally DependentDevelopmental Induction framework, conceptualizing environmental conditions, especiallyoxygen availability, as constitutive parts of developmental mechanisms, not just as externalinfluences. By combining phylogenetical comparative analysis with theoretical approaches andexperimental interventions, the dissertation demonstrates how environmental factorshistorically became embedded within the causal architecture of the heart, shaping both thegeneration and stabilization of phenotypic variation. This approach bridges the gap betweencausal (mechanistic) and constitutive (organizational) explanations and reframes disease asan outcome of developmental systems evolved to be responsive to environmental difference-makers. It thus reframes congenital heart defects as manifestations of the same developmentalmechanisms that underpin evolutionary innovation and constraint. The resulting theory offersa unified mechanistic and phylogenetic explanation of heart evolution and developmentalvulnerability, connecting the historical emergence of novel cardiac forms to present-daysusceptibilities in vertebrate development.